Driving Instructor Associations

I was told yesterday that many local associations are starting to diminish and lose members.

I wonder is this a trend nationwide?

Most associations only have a small proportion of the local ADIs as members and I wonder is there a reason for this?

If you are a member of an association, why are you a member and what do you want your association to do for you (what does your local association do for you?) If you are an activie member in your association, what do you do for the association?

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Southern Driving Instructors Association. Now in our third year with a good sized membership and well attended, good natured, informative meetings. http://southerndia.org.uk. Look for our Facebook group (search for sdia) where you will see some good comments about the last meeting. It does take some work and dedication from the committee, I am Chairman, but it has brought our local instructing community together.

I have also been contacting associations around the country to offer presentations about Time and Task Management for Driving Instructors, linked in with our Instructor Apps. I have made contact with a lot of good associations and will be presenting at a few this year.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Dalek Sec wrote:

If you are a member of an association, why are you a member and what do you want your association to do for you (what does your local association do for you?) If you are an activie member in your association, what do you do for the association?

Could i ask you to give an answer to the above questions please? in your own time no rush! thank you.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

When I first joined the local branch of the national association here in the Northern Territory, it was only game in town.Being a shiny, brand-new instructor with that new-instructor smell still lingering, I was looking forward to meeting the other instructors and hopefully get some quality professional development from the meetings - two of the aims of the association according to its constitution.Also the boss said it was mandatory (he also said it was mandatory to vote for him for association president, and for councillor or mayor at the next shire elections too, but that's another story).

I started to look forward to association meetings less and less, because of:(1) Petty squabbles between instructors and poor meeting control by the chairpersons.(2) Many of the meetings were hate sessions against the MVR (equivalent of your DSA), with motions moved to write letters personally attacking* certain MVR staff. Luckily most of these motions were eventually defeated but this often resulted in the motion-movers and their pals shifting their attacks to the nay-sayers, these meetings got very nasty indeed.*One moron actually suggested we PHYSICALLY attack an MVR member by going to his house and throwing stones at it, no I'm not kidding!(3) There was very little spirit of camaraderie and very little professional development.(4) Overall the meetings were a real drag.

After going indie I still maintained my membership because most instructors here are registered to instruct for the NT Government's log-book program and for that we need Professional Indemnity & Public Liability insurance, which is prohibitively expensive unless one is a member of an association.

One year I let myself be voted in as treasurer.I was given a rather ratty looking set of account books not very well laid out, how they passed the annual independent audit was a mystery.I regretted being treasurer at the end of the AGM where everyone approached me to renew their annual subscription.There was no orderly line-up, people just threw money on my table and fled, leaving me with a pile of cash and no knowledge of who had paid what.The newly-elected secretary raised suspicion by typing the minutes directly into a lap-top during the meeting and when I read the printout a few days later the minutes bore little relationship to what actually was said.As a committee member I had one of the mailbox keys so I could clear the mailbox regularly as the secretary lived out of town and didn't come in often.One say I received an email from her saying I was a thief because I was stealing mail from the mailbox i.e. only forwarding some of the mailbox contents to her. Her reason for this accusation was there was no junk mail handed on to her along with the ordinary letters.She'd forgotten that the particular post office centre where our mailbox was located, was in an industrial area and junk mail was banned.

This was too much for me, and I (with some others) resigned and joined the New South Wales branch of the association who welcomed us with open arms.

So for me there are no more tiresome out-of-control meetings, listening to petty squabbles.I get a monthly newsletter from the NSW branch which doesn't expect me to attend any meetings as I live thousands of miles away.I still get cheap PL & PI insurance and can continue providing for the NT Government.I work in close conjunction with another ADI who is highly regarded by the authorities - I get PD this way, and also from this forum and other UK forums.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

If you are a member of an association, why are you a member and what do you want your association to do for you (what does your local association do for you?) If you are an activie member in your association, what do you do for the association?

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

I've had a similar experience to Johnp, texted the secretary to check up were they still in operation as I had heard that the association had folded. Aapparently only 6 people turn up to meetings which occurr every 2 months.

Well they havent folded but it is true about the turnout. However the membership was closed on January 31st so I'm out in the cold so to speak.

I suppose this forum is a type of cyber association. Certainly a good place to pose questions.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Locally we are trying to provide all the benefits of an association without the formalities that often hold them back.

We are fortunate enough to have a venue of our own, and we open the doors every fortnight on a Saturday morning for local instructors to pop in on an ad-hoc basis. Ok it has been costing us a a few cups of coffee but we believe the project is really about creating an Instructor community. We (well Anne really) are able to provide the most up to date info relating to our industry, alongside an informal atmosphere and in general a nice place to be.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Promanade wrote:

Dalek Sec wrote:

If you are a member of an association, why are you a member and what do you want your association to do for you (what does your local association do for you?) If you are an activie member in your association, what do you do for the association?

Could i ask you to give an answer to the above questions please? in your own time no rush! thank you.

I am a member of my local association as I want to see ADIs viewed as proefessionals and take the necessary action to do so. I also want ADIs to become more embroilled in road safety rather than isolated.

I want my association to assist me in my aims but also for me to assist my association in its aims - a symbiotic relationship if you like. I want my association to contribute towards road safety by being involved in such sessions with schools/colleges etc..

I want my association to represent my views and the views of the membership and for these to feed into the national memberships and ultimatelt the decision makers.

My association has had some very good guest speakers and I would like this to continue including some targeted training sessions - We have had specific traininng sessions arranged (CPD if you prefer)

As an active member of my association, I have arranged for guest speakers, fed back to my association on industry issues and contibuted to the running of the association through the committee.

I have links through the local council road safety departments and I do voluntary work in school delivering road safety sessions.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

I am a member of my local association, but I must admit over the last year have not attended as much as I would like due to looking after an elderly relative. Our association arranges CPD sessions for members, and is also working with the local council in an attempt to raise local awareness about road safety issues.

It is interesting that driving instruction being the lonely job it is, doesn't seem to encourage more instructors to join their local associations, if only to chat with others and keep in touch with changes within the industry.

I think we can all agree that we sometimes have bad days in the car and sometimes family issues coupled with the pressure of the job, can make you feel somewhat isolated, so a chat with others once a month can be quite a nice way of sharing experiences.

Re: Driving Instructor Associations

Well I attended the Watford meeting and can say how much I enjoyed their welcome.They were very friendy with a number of private questions of a personal nature.

As a group they were incredibly well organised with each member having a CPD file for the meetings they attended. It all seemed very professional. I just hope my presentation was not too 'unstructured' and that they all got plenty to add to their file.